What's Wrong with Democracy?: From Athenian Practice to American Worship

by Loren J. Samons II

Book Overview

Fifth-century Athens is praised as the cradle of democracy and sometimes treated as a potential model for modern political theory or practice. In this daring reassessment of classical Athenian democracy and its significance for the United States today, Loren J. Samons provides ample justification for our founding fathers' distrust of democracy, a form of government they scorned precisely because of their familiarity with classical Athens. How Americans have come to embrace "democracy" in its modern form-and what the positive and negative effects have been-is an important story for all contemporary citizens.

Confronting head-on many of the beliefs we hold dear but seldom question, Samons examines Athens's history in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. in order to test the popular idea that majority rule leads to good government. Challenging many basic assumptions about the character and success of Athenian democracy, What's Wrong with Democracy? offers fascinating and accessible discussions of topics including the dangers of the popular vote, Athens's acquisitive foreign policy, the tendency of the state to overspend, the place of religion in Athenian society, and more.

Sure to generate controversy, Samons's bold and iconoclastic book finds that democracy has begun to function like an unacknowledged religion in our culture, immune from criticism and dissent, and he asks that we remember the Athenian example and begin to question our uncritical worship of democratic values such as freedom, choice, and diversity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520251687
• ISBN13: 9780520251687
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Is that a Rhetorical Question?

Loren Samons's What's Wrong with Democracy? shatters the common misconceptions that Americans hold regarding democracy in general and Athenian democracy in particular. Samons traces the history of Athenian democracy from its foundations during the Peisistratid tyranny to its dissolution by the Macedonians. Along the way, he asserts that it was not democracy itself which made Athens great but that Athens was greatest when the citizens felt the obligations of citizenship. He encourages Americans to stop worshipping democracy as an end unto itself, claiming that the practice of viewing democracy as an unalloyed good actually threatens society. In What's Wrong with Democracy? Samons catalogues the various actions taken by the Athenian democracy which would make the modern democrat uncomfortable. Democracies are not supposed to be aggressors in war. Democracies are not supposed to extort money from other states. Democracies are not supposed to execute a city's population en masse. Democracies are not supposed to kill philosophers. Thus Samons shows that democracy in and of itself is not a moral good. It must be founded on some moral values. He claims that America is in dire straights because it lacks fundamental values to support its democratic form of government. For all their mistakes, according to Samons, the Athenians maintained a value structure to guide them during much of their democracy. Samons's argument regarding the Athenians' foundational values is fairly nuanced. In some passages he seems to be condemning the hawkish democracy for subjugating other city-states and provoking Sparta. Democracy, therefore, is at best morally neutral since the demos can abuse it so. In other passages, however, Samons lauds the same generation of Athenians because they understood citizenship to be an obligation as well as a privilege. Samons has few kind words for the generation of Athenian citizens whom democracy and its entitlements seduced. In the fourth century the democracy was unable to sacrifice its theatre subsidies for the city's defense. Samons addresses his most scathing critique to current American sensibilities. When democracy becomes a moral imperative, Samons argues that freedom, choice, and diversity become the cardinal virtues. Samons refers to these three as anti-virtues, and he claims that the individuality that they promote will eventually undercut the democratic ideals that spawned them. What's Wrong with Democracy? laments the lack of leaders in America, and the West in general, who would tell the "people" that they want the wrong things. His thesis is bound to ruffle feathers. His reading of the sources is very convincing, but many undoubtedly will object to his application to the American situation. Not only is the analysis worth reading, but the book is very entertaining too.

Outstanding-one of the best books I've ever read

Samons brings us to the painful realization the genuine democracy is an unsustainable aberration in human history, which has been dominated by oligarchy, a far wiser and stronger form of governance. Using the demise of Athens as an example, Samons reveals democracy's fatal flaws. In a nutshell, the inmates cannot be trusted to run the asylum. In the end they will bankrupt society by paying themselves with public treasure that they are unwilling to fund through taxes, and exempt themselves from military service rendering their state defenseless. America is well down this road to ruin. To survive, it seems evident we will have to practice de facto oligarchy to survive, as the US has to various extents in its history. If we move toward greater de facto democracy (as opposed to the illusion thereof, a useful tool to placate the masses), we will perish as Athens did. While it may make sense for us to promulgate the weak form of government that is democracy among our enemies to undercut their strength, it will become difficult to do so if we ourselves abandon it.